Day 1 Ends With Andre Akkari On Top
Day 1 has come to a close here at the Rio with Andre Akkari and his 108,700 bagging the most chips. A field of 393 players came in today and only about 85 came out the other side. Last year saw Matt Matros take home the gold bracelet. This year someone else will take their seat on the throne; Matros was eliminated early on and won’t be defending his title.
The field looked extremely promising and consisted of poker’s best, but as the day wore on players dropped to the wayside. Daniel Negreanu, Antonio Esfandiari, Scott Seiver, Jean-Robert Bellande, Barry Greenstein, Chad Brown, David Sklansky, Jeff Madsen and John Juanda were all eliminated.
Despite the many notable eliminations, a handful were able to take advantage of the field and thrived. David Williams took control of every table he was moved to and spent his day acquiring chips.
Phil Ivey spent the afternoon and early evening competing in Event 32: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. and the rest of his evening competing over here. Despite a little set back early Ivey finished the day with 37,500.
Other players who we will see on day two are Huck Seed, Bryan Devonshire, and Dan Harrington.
Of those returning, only 45 of those will be getting paid and only one person will be awarded a bracelet. Who will make it to Day 3? Find out here at PokerNews tomorrow starting at 2:00 PM when all the competitors will be coming back to fight it for poker glory.